Current status of sphincter preservation in rectal cancer.

Surgical management of rectal carcinoma has progressed during the past decade to a wider utilization of sphincter preservation procedures. As such techniques have been modified and advanced, options for sphincter preservation have been employed to significantly preserve quality of life without adversely affecting patient survival or functional results. The documentation that recurrence of rectal carcinoma is based more upon individual tumor biology than simply wide or radical margins of resection has supported the rationale for sphincter-sparing procedures. The surgical management of rectal carcinoma has moved from traditional radical excision with colostomy to functional preservation in selected patients.